Potential
by Korodai
Summary: When a human gets turned into a pony and sent to Equestria to be the apprentice of the princess of nature, he decides to dedicate his life to the study of magic. How will his presence affect the world around him? Can he achieve greatness against all odds? OCxTwilightxLuna
1. Chapter 1

The sun was setting over the horizon as Trevor walked his way back to his home. The smell of rain still resided in the air as he watched the many headlights of all the cars coming and going through the street. A cold breeze made him shiver a little in his black suit and white dress shirt. He found those clothes uncomfortable, but what else would he wear at a funeral?

His uncle's funeral had been one of the worst experiences of Trevor's life. Having to say farewell to the person who took care of him after the accident that killed his parents, when he was seven, and knowing that he would never come back hurt his soul like hell.

The 17 year old boy didn't really know what to do now. Of course he still had his uncle's house but he was in no condition of taking care of himself, having to quit school due to aggravating depression, the previous year. Maybe the social services could help him in some way but frankly, he would prefer not to have to resort to that.

As Trevor unlocked and opened the door to his uncle's house he finally let out the tears, he was desperately trying to hold back. He closed the door, pressed his back against it and slid to the floor while sobbing. Uncle Phillip was all the family he had left, and now he was gone. He had no friends, no family, nothing. Some of his uncle's friends had offered to help him and he was inclined to take their offer, but that didn't help the feeling of emptiness inside of him.

A great part of the treatment of his depression was keeping a mantra to never give up, he still had something to live for, but now that his only family in the planet was gone, what was left?

The thought of making Phillip mourn over him gave him strength to keep going, but he never imagined that he would be the one mourning. He knew his uncle was bound to pass away some day, but it was supposed to be in the far future, at a time where he would be stronger.

Finally managing to get a grip of himself the young man rose to his feet. '_Come on Trevor, uncle Phillip would not like to see you like this_.' Glancing at the door of his bedroom he realized just how tired he was, it had been a long day and he needed some rest. '_I'll figure something out, I just need some rest_.'

Trevor walked into his room, and straight into bed, not even bothering to take his suit off, his desire to sleep overcoming the uncomfortable feeling it gave him.

He closed his eyes feeling his drowsiness overcome his as he drifted to sleep, hoping that some magical force would take him to another world, were the pain would be over.

If he had his eyes open for a few seconds longer he would have seen the bright green light overcome his sleeping form.

* * *

After a long night of sleep, Trevor finally opened his eyes only to find himself with one hell of a headache.

He groaned as he brought a hoof to his head to try and…'Wait a minute.' His eyes shot open as he quickly sat up and stared at his…hooves.

"…the fuck?!"

His hands were gone, in their place were now hooves.

"This can't be possible!"

As he looked around he realized that he wasn't in his room anymore, in fact he was pretty sure he wasn't even in his city. He was in a clearing in the middle of a forest; all around him was nothing big tall trees and the smell of leaves.

"How did I get here?"

He tried standing up, only to fall on his back staring at his legs that now had hooves for feet. Through some simple assumption he figured it would be better to stand in all fours due to his newfound condition. He stumbled a bit but finally got a grip and managed to stand tall.

Trevor took this chance to examine the rest of his new body. He had a dark brown coat whit a dark green spiked tail. If he had to take a wild guess he would say he was some kind of horse, but then again he had never seen a horse with a green tail.

"Ok so I'm not home anymore…I don't even know where I am, and to top it all I'm…a horse." Trevor let that statement sink in for a second. "Either this is a very livid dream or I need to change my anti-depressants."

He stood for a few seconds trying to plan a course of action. He couldn't just stand there and wait for something to happen, even if it was just a dream. Making up his mind he picked a random direction, and marched through the woods trying not to fall while walking on all fours.

* * *

Trevor had been walking for so long that he could barely see the sun over the tall trees; it was obvious that it was only a short time before it got dark. He needed to find shelter for the night, there was no telling what kind of beasts roamed this forest.

'_I can't just keep walking and hope that I find civilization, I need to build a shelter for the night_.' He then shifted in his hooves. '_But how will I build a shelter with…these_?' He thought as he stared at his hooves.

His train of thought was interrupted when he suddenly heard a feminine voice. **"It's alright chosen, you are safe in these grounds."**

Trevor blinked and looked around him franticly, where had that voice come from? For all he knew it seemed to have come from all around him. "Uhh…he-hello?" He could only stutter at this point. Being frank he was quite afraid at this point, whoever it was it must have had a vantage point on him, and surely had a better knowledge of the forest. He crouched slightly trying to do as best of a defensive stance as his new body would allow it.

Suddenly roots could be seen sprouting out of the ground and take the form of a giant cocoon only to disperse and reveal a mare.

In his world Trevor would not be able to identify a female horse just out of its appearance but this mare had clear feminine characteristics. She had a bright green coat whit a tangled dark pink mane and tail, and what appeared to be the drawing of a tree marked on her flank and she was much taller than him, she wore a crown which appeared to be made out of roots and a necklace made out of all kinds of flowers. But what really stood out about her was her horn and wings.

"I guess you must have a lot of questions." She said whit her sweet voice but strong at the same time.

Then Trevor did the only sensible thing someone like him would do at a time like this.

"HOLY FUCK, A TALKING HORSE." He said as he jumped and fell on his back startled beyond reason.

She giggled lightly at his reaction. "I guess that was expected given your situation."

Trevor was trying his best to keep it cool and calm down. _'Ok, ok…its ok Trevor…it's just a talking horse…that just came out of the ground…and you're a horse too…I MUST BE GOING INSANE'_

"Why don't we start with our names first?" She said in an attempt to calm him down. "My name is Gaia"

"I'm…Trevor." He said confused.

"Hm…that name won't do, we'll have to go about changing it quite soon"

"What do you mean my name won't do?" Trevor said whit a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"All in due time, chosen." Gaia said "You must have a lot of questions about your situation, but please let me explain your purpose here before asking them."

Trevor kept quiet, whatever explanation this mare had to say was more than anything he got since he woke up here, plus if the horse can talk he might as well listen to what it has to say.

"I am Gaia, the creator of all the wild life in this world." She said. "You see Trevor, I have been trying to find someone worthy to be my pupil for a very long time, but it seemed this world just didn't have the right soul to take the place. My only option was to search in other worlds, and well, that's how I found you."

"W-what's so special about me?" Trevor said, now genuinely interested in her explanation.

"You see Trevor as much as you negate yourself to see it, you are an admirable person." Gaia said with a smile. "I watched you since the beginning of your life, I watched your losses, which were many, and I was captivated with your iron will to keep going and never give up, and how you tried to make all around you just an ounce happy even if it made your existence miserable."

Trevor was speechless. Was she saying the truth? Sure he tried to be a good person, and always do the right thing but he didn't think it was that impressive. But here was the first being to appreciate his actions since his uncle Phillip.

"At first I didn't want to bring you here." Gaia said with a pint of sadness in her voice. "You were on a journey to find your happiness, and I thought it would be wrong to take you away from your uncle that you loved so much. But then he passed away." Gaia could only stare at the ground in sorrow.

Trevor could feel his heart shattering all over again, the memories of his uncle coming back to him at full force. He missed him so much.

"That world has taken so much away from you, and given you so little. I couldn't leave you there with nothing left, so I did what I thought was right and brought you here." Her face lighted up with renovated determination. "You have a pure heart, and you know what it is to be helpless and afraid. I want to give you strength so you can share it with the ones in need like you always did. I want to give you a chance to be happy Trevor."

"What do you mean?" Trevor said breaking himself out of his state of sadness.

"I am the ruler of all nature, I have power over the wild but I can only do so much. I want your help Trevor; I want to teach you the ways of the wild, because I know that you can bring something wonderful to this world. So…will you accept my offer?" Gaia said extending her hoof.

"So you brought me here against my will, turned me into a pony of some sorts, and now you just expect me to leave it all behind and go with you?" Trevor said, rage burning in his eyes.

Gaia looked down in shame. "I know it was not the best approach, and I know I should have asked you first, but I couldn't bear to see you suffer like that."

"Well it doesn't matter anymore now, does it?" Trevor said clearly furious. "I'm stuck here now, and there is no coming back."

"If you want I can send you back." Gaia said, now looking at him. "But let me ask you a question. Do you really want to come back after all that has happened? You lost everything and have been oppressed for years in that world. What are you coming back for?"

Trevor froze. He had never thought of it like that. His family was gone, he had no one, he couldn't find any kind of work that gave him the least bit of pleasure in doing and he didn't know if he had the strength to carry on in that cruel world of his. Was there really a reason to come back?

He just stood there for what it seemed like hours.

"This is a different world Trevor." Gaia said with a faint smile. "This is chance for you to start over."

Trevor looked at her; she seemed genuinely concerned about him. Maybe that's all he needed, a fresh start. He didn't want to come back to a world that only brought him suffering.

Trevor then made the decision that would change his life.

"I guess when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose." He said with a faint smile on his face. "I accept."

He was then surprised as Gaia pulled him into a tight hug. "This is going to be so fun! I have so much to teach you!"

"What am I exactly going to learn?" Trevor said slightly uncomfortable from the hug.

"You'll learn a lot, but first let me take you to your new home." Gaia said letting go of him. Her horn then started to glow and roots sprouted out of the ground forming a cocoon around them only to them travel back into the ground revealing them in a completely different location.

"That's so cool." Trevor admitted. Being able to travel like that could really come in handy.

"That is one of the things I'll teach you, but what I really wanted to show is that." Gaia said gesturing to the massive tree in front of them. The tree was easily bigger than any building Trevor had ever seen, probably being hundreds of feet tall.

Trevor found himself mesmerized by the colossal oak.

"Now if you'll follow me inside." Gaia said, walking to the door at the bottom of the tree.

Trevor followed as she opened the door to reveal the hollow inside of the tree, completely decorated with all kinds of furniture, and filled with ponies of all kinds walking around.

However as Gaia walked in, all of the ponies stopped dead in their tracks, and bowed down to the princess. She was then approached by a grey Pegasus with red mane and a boot with wings attached to the back for a cutie mark.

"Princess Gaia, good to have you back." He said hastily. "I am happy to report that the wild berries are finally ready for harvesting! We are just waiting on your order to begin."

"That's great to hear Lucky Streak." Gaia said with a smile. "Tell the harvesters that they may commence immediately."

"Right away, your majesty." He said as he flew off

"What kind of name is 'Lucky Streak'?" Trevor said with slight confusion on his face as he looked in a nearby mirror. He wasn't able to get a good look at his new body before. Now he could see that he was a regular pony, with a dark brown coat, his mane and tail were dark green in color and although his tail was kind of spiked in appearance, his mane was made of dreads, and he had dark green marks around his eyes witch had a golden color.

"I'll explain everything to you in a feel moments." Gaia said walking to a gigantic red door at the end of the lobby, with Trevor following close behind.

Past the door was another room decorated with numerous lights hanging from the ceiling and a long red carpet in traversing the middle of the room leading to a set of stairs with a big oak throne at the top.

"This is the throne room, should you ever need of me, you will be able to find me here, most of the time" Gaia said as she took a seat on the throne and looked at Trevor. "Now listen closely for I have a lot to explain…"

* * *

Trevor knew that learning about a whole new world would be complicated but…wow. This world was so different from his old one. Mythical creatures walking around were a normal thing, magic was a day to day thing and they came up with the weirdest jobs for ponies, like who would have thought that it would be possible to control the weather?

"So everyone has a 'Cutie Mark'?" Trevor said while trying to make sense of the situation.

"Yes, I'm sure you will get yours in no time." Gaia said. She really liked finally having a student of her own, after hearing so much about her old friend Celestia's student. "We will also have to come up with a new name for you. I believe 'Trevor' does not fit into our society."

"If I understand correctly, the names are usually two words that represent your personality in some way, right?"

"Yes, that is correct" Gaia said with a proud smile on her face. "I will work on your name as I get to know you better, but for now don't worry about it."

"And you also said you were going to teach me magic, but how do you plan to do that since I don't have a horn?"

"I'll take care of that in due time as well. For now I want you to spend some time at the library and read some books about equestrian history and I'll also give you some time to explore the palace." Gaia said. "We will start your training in let's say…one week."

"Looking forward to it." Trevor said with a hint of excitement in his voice.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have royal business to take care off." Gaia said as she floated a scroll up to her with her magic. "Why don't you go explore in the meantime, I'll send somepony to escort you to your room when it gets late."

"Understood." Trevor said as he walked out of the throne room and back into the lobby. Where to go next? Thankfully all of the entryways had a sign for what the room was used for, which was probably a smart thing given the place was so big.

He knew he needed to go to the library, but it was still fairly early so he figured he had time to explore the place a little. The library was conveniently on the first floor, so it would be easy to find when he eventually came back to get some reading started.

Walking around the first floor Trevor came across a doorway with a sign identifying it as the kitchen. He then realized that he hadn't eaten since he woke up, which made his stomach growl. Deciding against starving he entered.

It was an incredibly big kitchen, which Trevor figured was necessary in order to feed everypony in the palace. The place was not only a kitchen but also some kind of restaurant apparently, and a very luxurious one at that. The entire place was masterfully decorated to fit with the interior of the tree.

As he observed the place a unicorn stallion dressed in a suit and bow-tie approached him. "Table for one, sir?"

Trevor was in such awe by the whole place that he didn't even see the waiter come up to him. Once he snapped out of his trance he remembered that he didn't have any money on him. "Uhh…no, I'm just getting to know the place…" He was interrupted when his stomach growled loudly, which in turn made his face fluster with a light blush.

"You're not from around here, are you?" The waiter said with a friendly smile. "Come on, first order is on the house." He then proceeded to push Trevor to a nearby table.

"Thank you…I guess." Trevor said as he sat down on the chair.

"So what will it be?" He said while floating a notebook and a pen up to his eye level.

Trevor looked at the menu and all he saw was a bunch of foods that he didn't even think were food. A daisy sandwich? Did they actually eat flowers in this world? But the more he thought about it the more it made sense, since those were things that ponies ate anyway.

"I'll just have what the chef suggests." He said. He was so hungry that he didn't even care if he had to eat flowers.

"I'm sure chef Rose Sweet will come up with something good for you." He said as he took some notes while smiling. "I'll be back in a moment with your food." He then walked into the kitchen to deliver the order.

Trevor took the time to examine the ponies around him. There were ponies of all shapes and colors, some looked big and buffed, while others were thin and more gracious looking. He saw that it was very easy to distinguish males from females.

Only now he noticed how much attention he had gained since he got here. Many of the ponies were giving him glances, probably because they had never seen him before, which was understandable, given that this was his first day here and he was already allowed in the palace. He even noticed some mares blushing as they looked at him. Was he an attractive pony? More importantly, why did he also find some of them attractive? He guessed it was just the pony side of him taking over and figured he could just roll with it, after all an attraction to his new species was the least of the crazy things that happened to him today.

As Trevor enjoyed the eye candy, the waiter came back levitating a plate with some kind of pie. "Rose Sweet's special apple pie, I hope you like it." He said as he left his client to enjoy his meal.

As he took a bite of it he was stupefied. He didn't know if it was his pony appetite acting up but he swore apples didn't taste that great before. The pie was also pretty filling. Whoever made this was a great chef and he would have given her his complements if he wasn't such an introvert.

As he finished his meal, the friendly waiter from before came to retrieve the plate. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, thank you, it was great!" he said as he got up of his chair.

"Hope to see you again soon." Said the waiter as Trevor walked back to the main lobby.

With a full stomach he figured it was time to check the library and get his reading going. With that thought in mind he headed straight to the doorway with the "Library" sign on top.

Once getting there he could see very tall bookshelves filled to the top with all kinds of books. This was a true fountain of information, and an impressive sight to witness.

Deciding that he would take hours to find what he was looking for he overcame his introversion, even if just for a moment, and walked up to the pegasus mare at the front desk. She had a red coat with a silver mane tied into a knot coupled with a pair of glasses and an open book for a cutiemark.

"Hello and welcome to the Everfree palace's library! How may I be of help?" The mare said with a bright smile.

"Hi…I was hoping you could help me find a book on general Equestrian history." Trevor said while shyly look around. He found talking to people in his old world to be extremely stressing and that passed on to the habitants in this world.

"General Equestrian history…" she said to herself. "I have just the thing."

The librarian flew to one of the front bookstands and pulled out a massive book. She struggled with the weight as she flew back to him carrying it in her hooves. She then placed it in the desk with a loud thud and proceeded to straighten her mane, that got a little messy from all the hassle.

"This is the Equestrian Gran Encyclopedia" she said with a hint of pride in her voice. "This contains most of the Equestrian history information, save for a few specific facts."

Trevor could not believe the size of the book, this world had a lot information to give, and it would probably take a while for him to learn everything, if he managed to learn everything that is.

"Wow." Was all that he could muster at the sight.

The mare giggled at his reaction. "Yeah, it's a pretty big book. May I ask why do you need a book like this?"

"Well…" Trevor tried to come up with an answer better than 'I came from another world!'. "I'm from far away…like very far away and Gaia wanted me to learn about the land before she begins to teach me."

The librarian gasped. "You're Gaia's student?!"

"Uhh…yeah." Trevor said as he blushed lightly.

"That is so cool!" she said, her eyes shining with awe. "I'll be glad to help you in any way I can! I don't know if you noticed, but I'm a fan of Princess Gaia." She said blushing deeply

"Yes, she can be a very admirable mare." Trevor said remembering everything the princess had done for him, granted it might not have been the best approach she did it all with good intentions.

"My name is Sunray Novel, nice to meet you." She said extending her hoof

"My name is…" Trevor froze. He couldn't say his human name and Gaia had not come up with a name for him. He had to think of something fast. Then something in his mind clicked. "…Lone Heart." He said as he shook her hoof.

"So, Mr. Lone Heart, if you are staying at the palace you can take this book with you for your studies. I would be more than glad to help you in any way I can" Sunray said with a wink.

Trevor blushed at that comment. Was she flirting with him? No one had ever done that before, so he didn't really know how to deal with it.

As if luck was on his side the same Pegasus from earlier came flying through the door. "I'm looking for princess Gaia's student." He said only now catching sight of Trevor. " Oh there you are. I am here to guide you to your room."

"Oh, ok" Trevor said as he put the heavy book on his back. "Nice to meet you, Sunray and thank you for the book."

"Make sure you come back Lone Heart, I would love to see you again." She said with a bright smile.

Trevor then followed Lucky Streak out of the library, not noticing the mare at the front desk looking at his behind and purring lightly.

Lucky Streak guided Trevor through a flight of stairs, which did a number on his bad since he had to carry a heavy book through the distance. When they finally stopped at a door he had to put the book down, panting a little.

"Here we are." Said the cheerful Pegasus as he unlocked the door and gave Trevor the key. "If you have any issues just look for me."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."

As Trevor entered the room he was astonished by its level of luxury. If it were in his old world this would have been clearly considered first class. The bed was big, clean sheets and the soft smell of flowers in the air. It had a coffee table in the middle with a comfortable looking couch next to it. When he looked out the window in the room, he could see the rest of Everfree Forest and the windows of other rooms in the tree's gigantic branches.

He set the book in the coffee table and stretched, making his back give some satisfactory cracks.

"I see you're settling down already." Said Gaia, who was standing in the doorway.

Trevor turned to look at her. "Yes…thank you for the room, it's very nice."

"It's the least I could do." She said with a cheerful smile. "By the way, on my way here I bumped into Sunray Novel, and she asked all about the handsome stallion that I had chosen as a student." She let a giggle escape at the memory. "I guess you must have made quite the first impression Mr. Lone Heart."

Trevor blushed at the thought of the flirty mare. "Not really, she just became interested when I commented about being your student…she really adores you." He then looked around embarrassed. "And I'm sorry about the name… I just had to say something."

"It's quite alright, after watching you for so long I believe it's a fitting name, given you are not the most cheerful individual." Gaia looked a bit saddened with that statement. "But I'm sure we'll fix that in due time. For now try to read some of that book and I'll make the preparations for your training. But for now you should try and rest for the night." She said as she closed the door slightly. "I'll see you tomorrow".

As she shut the door Trevor went straight to bed, the day had been extremely exhausting. But all of the crazy things that had happened to him in just one day, it all gave him hope, hope that this new beginning would bring him a brighter future than the one he would have had in the human world. This was a new world and now he wasn't Trevor anymore, he had a brighter future and a chance to be something greater than he could have possibly imagined. He was not Trevor anymore, he was Lone Heart.


	2. The Visit

The next week Lone Heart dedicated his time to read as much as possible, but he could only read a fraction of the book. There was just so much to learn. The mare in the moon, all the numerous festivities, how the first princesses created the world he now lived in. it all seemed like a fairy tale brought to reality. It would most likely be impossible to read the entire book, unless he spent years soaking all of the information. But he felt like he knew enough, given that it was his first week in this world.

Then as promised by Gaia, after one week had passed she took him to a room in the last floor of the palace. The room was decorated with torches and some weird totems, it have many scrolls in stands connected to the walls. The room looked like a ceremonial room of sorts.

"Welcome to the pinnacle." Gaia said with a proud smile. "I created this room for when I finally found a worthy student. It's sitting here just waiting to be used, it has all kinds of scrolls in various types of magic, and I plan to use them to teach you."

"That's great and all, but how do you plan to teach me magic if I don't have a horn?" Lone Heart said, with confusion on his horn.

"Although most ponies are born with a horn, you are different." She said while looking at him in a more serious way. "When you came to this world some human characteristics came with you. You were born in a species that could adapt to almost any condition. That trait was turned into something more powerful when you came to this world."

"So you're saying that I can adapt to magic?" He said, not completely understanding what she was trying to say.

"In a way, yes. You see, every pony has magic in their bodies, but unicorn have a lot more, their bodies need the horn to accommodate all of the magic."

"You want to infuse my body with more magic than it can handle, so it'll create a horn to adapt to all of it?" Lone Heart said, now a little scared of his tutor's plan.

"I've studied your species and I took the liberty to bring some here before you. Only dead ones I assure you and when I examined their bodies they had all the capabilities to do what I want to do with you."

Lone Heart wanted to point out some scientific errors in her statement, but then he remembered that magic existed in this world and he supposed it was limitless as to what it could do. Throw that in the hooves of one of the most powerful beings in the planet and the possibilities were endless.

After giving it some thought there was only one question in Lone Heart's mind.

"Will it hurt?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I need to infuse you with enough magic for enough time in order for your body to fully adapt. And as may guess, growing a horn out of your skull can be pretty painful. So I'll understand if you don't want to go through it, but that will mean that you won't be able to be my student anymore." Gaia said with sadness in her eyes, it was clear that she didn't like the idea of causing Lone Heart to suffer, after all he's been through, but she was still willing to do it if it was necessary.

He spent what seemed like hours thinking about it, in a few short minutes. It was hard to choose to feel pain, but was it worth it?

"When you said I could be something big, something special in this world, did you mean it?"

"With all of my soul." Gaia said now seeing the determination flare in his eyes.

"Let's do it!"

Lone Heart watched as he was lifted on the ground by a green aura. Then it began.

Pain laced through his body as he tried to hold back screams and tears ran down his eyes. He had never felt anything so painful before. It was like his head was going to explode. The next few hours were a blur.

For four hours he agonized, his mind trying to go unconscious but the pain kept him awake through all of it. He could only thank whatever god was watching over him as he felt the pain stop as he was gently placed on the ground. His head was numb and he could only look at Gaia's saddened but also worried face, before he felt his eyes shut themselves and his mind slip away into sleep.

* * *

When Lone Heart woke up, he was back at his room. After all the pain, he now realized just how comfortable his bed was. His head was still sore from the experience and his throat was dry.

As he brought a hoof to his head in an attempt to ease some of the pain, he expected to touch his forehead; however he was surprised when something hard and pointy poked his hoof. Looking up he realized that the strange object was in fact a horn attached to his head.

"It worked!" Was all he could muster at the sight.

"Indeed." Gaia said from his couch with a warm smile.

"How long have you been here?" Lone Heart said. He didn't expect somepony as busy as the princess to wait what could be hours for him to wake up.

"Since you passed out." She said to his surprise. "I knew the process would take a lot out of you, so I cleared my schedule for today. I wanted you to see a friendly face when you woke up."

"Oh…thank you." The now unicorn said, with a little smile that couldn't hold back as hard as he tried. He had learned not to smile in his old world. Any demonstration of happiness just gave the world a target to eradicate, so he tried his hardest to smile as little as possible. The world was a warzone and he could not afford to show any kind of weakness, but he couldn't hold this one back. She really cared about him. At first he had his suspicions that she would just use him as weapon of sorts, but she had put the entire kingdom on hold just so he could wake up to a friendly face. No one had done something like that to him since his uncle.

"Well I think it would be better if you took the day off to rest. Your head will stop hurting in a few hours, so perhaps you should try to sleep the pain off. Now do you have any doubts before I leave?" Gaia said while walking to his bedside.

"Are we going to do the same thing to get me wings?" Lone Heart said, wincing at the thought of having to go through that experience again.

"Don't worry, we won't. I don't think is even possible to force your body to adapt wings." The princess said with a reassuring smile.

"So I won't have wings?" He said, with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Although he did not want to admit it, he knew it would be awesome to be able to fly.

"I didn't say that." Gaia said with a grin, immediately catching her student's attention. "It's certainly not impossible, but if you also had wings that would make you an alicorn, and let's just say that you are not ready for such a responsibility just yet."

"But I will be someday?" Lone Heart said. He didn't really understand what it meant to be an alicorn, but he did find it a bit weird that Gaia was the only one he has seen during his stay here.

"Time will tell. But for now, you should rest. Tomorrow we will start your magic training, and I have a lot to teach you." She said as she walked out of his room and gently closed the door.

Lone Heart let his head rest against the pillow, his head still throbbing. This was the starting point of his new life, his chance to be something bigger than he could have even been in his old world and he would not waste it. As he drifted to sleep once more, he made a promise to himself to try his absolute hardest to learn as best of he could. Gaia had done so much for him, and he would make it up to her by being the best student she could ask for.

* * *

Gaia was surprised whit the voracity of knowledge her student had. She had been teaching him for 3 months now and he did not stop for one second. Spell after spell, he would just take it all in. She knew he would not have a hard time learning the basics, from what she had watched while he was in the human world. She knew that he had an easy time learning, given the subject was of his interest, but he was learning even the more complicated spells, that would normally take weeks, in days. From what she could tell, his fast progress was given to the fact that he would never stop when others would. She would give him a spell to learn and he would not stop trying until he got it down perfectly. He refused to take breaks, and refused to give up. Hay, she had to force him to stop so he wouldn't work on a spell all night.

His working spirit although impressive was clearly bad for his health, physical and mental, so Gaia had to outright prohibit him of training for two days a week. Days which he used to continue reading on Equestrian history and, when Gaia thought he was locking himself in too much, talking to other ponies. He didn't like having to talk to others, that was something he was never good at in his world, being the extreme introvert that he is. But if he refused to do what Gaia told him, she would take him by force, he had learned that the hard way.

In these types of days, he decided to get to know the ponies he already talked to before, which was considerably easier than trying to make friends with a stranger. So Lone Heart really got to know Sunray Novel and Lucky Streak.

He had learned that the cheerful Lucky Streak was in the princess's personal assistant; his job was to give all of her orders to the respective personal, deliver messages and manage her schedule. At first the young unicorn thought that it was way too much work for just one pony, but after getting to know him better he understood why he was the right colt for the job. The Pegasus was a power bomb. Lone Heart was sure he had some caffeine addiction, it was the only way to explain the fact that he never got tired, ever.

Sunray Novel on the other hand was a much calmer pony. She had a love for romantic novels and an extreme admiration for princess Gaia, if Lone Heart had to guess he would say that she was most likely her number one fan. The more she got to know him, the hardest she hit on him, it was clear that the librarian had developed a crush for the princess's student, although he wasn't sure why. He had to admit that she was an attractive mare and he had let some rather flirtatious comments himself while in her presence, of course none of them were meant to sound that way, but when they did it only served to feed Sunray's attraction to him, which Gaia knew about and actually made sure to comment about his amazing progress while in her presence. She knew that he needed to deal with things like that so he would let himself believe that he could be happy in this world and lost his defensive and pessimistic demeanor.

Today was a very special day to Gaia. It was not every day that she could pay her good old friend Celestia a visit, but today that would be possible and she was exited. Not only would she be able to spend time with one of her oldest of friends but she would also take her student with her. She always had a desire to take Lone Heart to see the some of his new world, but with all of her royal business she had no time. Now that she had a rare day with no business demanding her immediate attention, she could go visit have some well-deserved girl talk with her friend. Plus she knew that Celestia had a student of her own so she was thrilled with the idea of introducing those two, if they hit it off they could be friends and she knew that he needed just that to sparkle some happiness in his heart.

She had a bright smile on her face as she walked up the steps of the palace. She was going to tell her student the good news, which she chose not to tell him before because she knew he would try to pull something off in order to not go and escape from having to interact with other ponies.

Since Lone Heart spent every possible hour of his days training his magic it was easy to find him. He would be at the pinnacle probably practicing a spell to control plants that she had taught him the day before.

Opening the door to the pinnacle she was surprised to see the vines of the sapling she left there for him, to use on his training moving fluidly around the room while picking up scrolls and bringing them to the young colt. A pony with regular training would have taken at least a week to get at this level, but Lone Heart had spent more than half of the previous day working on it, she had to drag him out so he would not starve himself like the usual. He probably was here since early in the morning training with no pause. Such way of training was probably unhealthy but she couldn't make him decide against it and she didn't want to physically force him to stop.

"Lone Heart, you can stop your training now. We have an appointment!" She said breaking her student's concentration making the vines become completely unanimated and the objects they were holding fall to the ground.

"Princess..." He gave her a quick bow. "You didn't mention an appointment for today."

"I wanted to surprise you." The princess said with a mischievous smile. "There is a carriage waiting for us at the front door. We are going to visit an old friend of mine."

* * *

Lone Heart was stupefied. He had never seen anything like Canterlot before. After living in the Everfree palace for so long he realized that Canterlot was its polar opposite. While Everfree had a more wild and natural look, Canterlot had a more luxurious and refined appearance. From the beautiful carpets on the floor to the well-made chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, this place was what a real palace would look like.

And he would get to meet princess Celestia, which was an honor given to few. He had read about her in his book, she was the one who created the daytime and raised the sun every day. The book said that her sister was the one that created the night and raised the moon, before growing bitter of of the citizens for enjoying the day and just sleeping through the night, and attempting to set the world in eternal darkness which resulted in her sister imprisoning her in the moon and taking up the responsibility of controlling the night also. If this was simply a a common folk tale, Lone Heart did not know.

As he followed Gaia closely, he tried his best to keep a formal stance. If he would be in front of a princess he needed to act with the upmost respect. Truth is, he was nervous. He saw Gaia as a second mother to him and couldn't bring himself to treat her as some strange royal that he was working for, he thought that would be too cold to her, but now he had to step his game up, Celestia was a princess he had never seen before and, like Gaia, one of the most powerful beings in the world. The fact that she lived in such a luxurious place could only mean that she was accustomed to being treated with formality and respect. He had to do just that.

The guards opened the door to the throne room to reveal two mares, one sitting on the throne and the other at her side.

The mare on the throne was clearly Celestia, seeing that she had the same appearance as the pictures of the book. She was an alicorn as tall as Gaia and had a white coat whit a cutie mark resembling the sun at her flank, her mane and tail were sparkly and multicolored with streaks of light blue, green, a darker shade of blue and a pink that was almost violet, she wore a crown, some sort of formal chest plate and adorned shoes that fit well with her figure.

The mare beside her was a unicorn of regular size; she had a light purple coat with a pink star with five other little white stars around it for a cutie mark, her mane and tail were of a dark blue color with two streaks, one pink and the other dark purple, going through them.

Upon seeing the princess of Everfree forest enter the room, Celestia immediately got up from her seat and walked over to give her longtime friend a hug.

"Oh Gaia, it has been far too long!" The princess of Canterlot said with a bright smile on her face.

"Yes it has Celestia; I've missed you so much!" Gaia said with an equally bright smile

Meanwhile Lone Heart was doing his best to keep his formal stance, even going as far as trying to not make eye contact with her. While the princesses embraced he noticed the mare accompanying the princess looking straight at him, as if she was examining him. He tried not to make eye contact with her too choosing instead to look at a point on the wall between the two of them.

"And you must be Twilight Sparkle." Gaia said now having backed out of the hug. "Celestia has talks a lot about you in her letters."

Twilight bowed down with a faint blush. "Yes, it's nice to meet you, your majesty."

Celestia then looked at Gaia's apprentice, which made his heart skip a beat. "And I see you got yourself a student of your own."

"This is Lone Heart." The princess of Everfree forest said wearing a proud smile. Her apprentice then bowed to the sun mare. "I'm sorry I didn't write about him to you beforehand, it's just that I've been very busy with his training."

"It's quite alright; I remember when I started Twilight's training. It gets easier as time goes on." Celestia said putting a wing over her student.

"I'll take your word for it!" The green alicorn said with a playful smile.

Celestia then turned to her pupil with a reassuring smile. "Twilight, why don't you show Lone Heart the library while I catch up with Gaia?"

"Sure thing!" Twilight said turning to Lone Heart with a friendly smile. "Follow me."

Twilight then walked out the door with Lone Heart following close behind. As they walked through the well adorned corridors of the palace, the mare couldn't help but keep giving glances at the colt beside her, the dreadlocks on his mane gave him a wild look and the fact that he had not said a word since he got here put a mysterious air around him, all around she thought he was handsome in a rough way. She liked being princess Celestia's apprentice, but she had to admit it could get pretty lonely. She spent most of her days either alone studying or with the princess. But now that this stallion had appeared, she knew she could get to be friends with him, after all he surely understood how lonely it could be to be a princess's pupil.

"So, how is it to be princess Gaia's student?" Twilight said attempting to start a conversation.

"Oh…it's nice, she's a great teacher." Lone Heart said. He knew the mare was just trying to be friendly with him but he couldn't help but be uncomfortable talking to her. He was not good at interacting with others, but he decided to try his best to not seem like he disliked her company.

"That's great to hear. When princess Celestia chose me as a student I was so excited! I admit that at first the training was hard and I had my thoughts about giving up, but she said she genuinely believed that I could be a great thing to Equestria one day and that gave me the strength to carry on." She said proudly.

"That's nice." Was all he could say on the matter. He was beginning to admire Celestia for doing that and he also admired Twilight for not giving up, but his years of introversion had created an habit of never talking much so as much as he wanted to get in an interesting conversation with the unicorn he just wasn't able to.

"Yeah…it is." She said, feeling kind of embarrassed. Had she said something wrong? She thought he was just like her and was nervous of screwing up in his first visit to another kingdom. She thought that if she told him about her hardships he would feel safer around her, safe enough to open up a little.

_'__Maybe he just doesn't care about me.'_ She thought as she looked at him feeling saddened and a little bit angry.

"Well, this is the library." She said, angrily although she did not mean to sound that way. She opened the door to reveal a big room full of bookshelves attached to the walls, probably as big as the one in the Everfree palace.

However, Lone Heart was paying no attention to the room ahead of him. _'I made her angry…like I always do.' _He had noticed the anger in her voice. It seemed that whenever he was meeting someone for the first time he always seemed to screw up by not talking enough. It was a recurring problem in his old world and it seemed like it would be a problem in this world too.

As Twilight entered, she stood in the middle of the room. Out of all the ponies princess Gaia could pick she had to choose a prideful bastard that thought he was better than everypony, not even wanting to spare words to others. Maybe it was just because she had been in the castle for far too long or maybe because she was expecting Gaia's pupil to be some kind of charming prince, but she could not help but be angry. Of course she would still be polite to him; he was still a guest despite his attitude, but she would still let him know she was angered by it. However, as she gave a sideways glare at him her anger subsided. She looked straight into his eyes expecting to see them full of pride or even some kind of disgust towards her, so she was immensely surprised to see them full of sadness or even pain.

_'__He did care…but why didn't he just talk to me?'_ She thought, now ashamed for speaking to him in that tone. Now she was determined, she knew he needed a friend and by the end of this day she would make sure she was that friend.

"I'm sorry if I sounded angry before." The purple mare said with a sad smile. "I've have just been stressed lately."

"It's…ok." Lone Heart said. It was always like this. They would think that he didn't like them and then they would apologize after realizing how miserable he was. It made him feel so pathetic.

"Let me tell you a little about myself." Twilight said with a reassuring smile. "As you already know, I'm princess Celestia's apprentice. I've been her apprentice for years now; she took me in when I was a little foal. My parents were very excited that I would have the honor of being the princess's student. Although I miss them and my brother, it's all for a good cause. I hope that one day I can bring great things to Equestria."

"That's…great to hear." The male unicorn said, not really knowing what to add to his statement.

"What about you?" The mare said, now trying to get some words out of the mysterious stallion. "How is your family like?"

_'__Out of all the questions she could have asked…'_ Lone Heart thought. How was he supposed to answer that question?

"Well, my parents died when I was little, so I stayed with my uncle for most of my life." The colt said, feeling there was no use in lying. He could have simply avoided the question but he felt that she would find out anyway sooner or later.

"Oh…and what is your uncle like?" Twilight said desperately trying to move onto a happier subject.

"He was a great guy." He said. He had stopped mourning over his uncle after the first month but he still didn't like to talk about the matter.

"He…**_was_**?" she said, not completely understanding what he meant.

"Yeah…" Lone Heart said while looking down, trying to block all the memories of his uncle, so he would not break down right there.

"Oh…" The mare said, now fully understanding what he meant by his statement. This conversation was going downhill fast and the sadness in his eyes only seemed to grow. She had to do something to cheer him up, and fast.

"Hey, let me show you the spell that I'm working on!" Twilight said with a cheerful smile. Hopefully this would lighten up the mood.

Lone Heart watched as her horn glowed with a pink light. Suddenly a book floated out of one of the shelves up to Twilights eye level, it then opened itself so she could read it. Then to his surprise, the words seemed to float out of the book and disappear into the mare's head.

"It's a spell to help you read faster. Although I still prefer regular reading, it can be really useful if you want to learn a lot really fast and if you get really good at it, you can read more than one book at the same time!" She said as she put the book down on the floor. "The only bedside is that it can give you a nasty headache if you do it for too long."

"That's really cool!" The green haired stallion said. In fact he found it one of the most useful spells he had ever seen. That spell could speed up his progress by a lot. Normally he had to read an entire scroll to learn one spell, it took days for him to read the scrolls for the more complicated ones, days that he could be training to be able to do it properly.

"What about you?" The mare said, genuinely interested. "Which spell are you learning?"

Lone Heart quickly looked around until he found a potted plant in a corner of the library. He approached it and poured all of his concentration on it while Twilight watched in curiosity. Her curiosity was quickly turned into astonishment as the fairly big plant climbed out of its pot and used its roots to move over to the book on the floor, that Twilight had used to demonstrate her spell, and picked it with its leaves before putting it back on the shelf and going back into the pot. The male unicorn felt a little dizzy, that was the farthest he had ever gotten with that spell. Maybe it was just his wish to impress the mare that made him go that far, but he was sure as hay proud of himself.

"That is awesome." Twilight said. "I bet if get really good at it you can move entire trees!"

"Well, that's the idea." He said blushing lightly and enjoying the praise.

"Hey I've got an idea!" The purple unicorn said with a friendly smile on her face. "Let's trade spells!"

Lone Heart found himself unable to hold back the smile on his face once again. Maybe this visit would not be so bad after all!

* * *

Gaia and Celestia were in the royal gardens, the sweet smell of flowers filled the air and the light chirping of birds could be heard from all around them.

As they set at a simple table, in the middle of the beautiful garden, they sipped on some sweet herbal tea.

They had talked about some royal matters, but the real reason for the visit was just to catch up. Celestia and Gaia were very good friends, given they worked together in the creation of the world, but when you have to take care of so many citizens, it becomes hard to keep contact. Moments like this were very appreciated by the two.

"…and now they want to make a statue of me! Can you believe it?" Celestia said with a giggle. She had been telling her friend the history of how she helped move a boulder that was blocking the entrance of Manehattan. It had been a piece of cake moving a rock that size, but the citizens just thought the world of the princess herself coming to their aid, when she just happened to be there at the time. Not that she didn't want to help, but she was sure any unicorn with some training in magic would be able to lift the blockage.

"Well, when you are a princess, you get a lot of admiration." Gaia giggled but then frowned slightly. "But moving onto more serious matters…have you made the preparations for your sister's return?"

"I have a plan in mind, no need to worry." Celestia said, seeming to be sure of herself.

"Can you share the details?" The pink haired alicorn said, with a look of apprehension on her face. "She comes back in two years and I have to know if I'll need to intervene."

"I'll leave it all to my student." The whit coated mare said proudly. "I have full faith that she will be able to find the elements of harmony. After that I plan to leave her in ponyville so she can learn about friendship."

"She's already at that level?" Gaia said a little surprised. "She must be a real prodigy if you're already thinking of turning her into an alicorn."

"Oh she has much to learn about the wonders of friendship, so it'll be a while before she is ready for that kind of responsibility, but she has the most raw magical potential I've ever seen! She just takes in all of my teachings like it was a second nature! But, how about your student? After you went through all the trouble to bring him here, I'm dying to know of his progress!" Celestia said with a expecting look.

"Well, while he is not as gifted as your pupil, he makes it up with dedication. Once I teach him a spell, he just keeps at it until he can perform it masterfully. The first days I thought he just stayed up late and woke up early to practice, but then I found out he just didn't stop! I found it weird when it took him one week to master the come-to-life spell, after investigating a bit I discovered he had spent the entire week up doing nothing but practicing that spell!"

The Canterlot princess choked on her tea when she heard that statement. "One week?! It took Twilight a month to be able to do that spell correctly and she can't even control it yet and you're telling me that he fully mastered it in just one week?"

"Yes, I was surprised too." The green alicorn said, now feeling proud of her student despite being so foolish by putting himself at risk like that. "But his attitude worries me. Of course him progress is amazing, but he is willing to risk his own wellbeing to achieve it! He is also extremely secluded. I guess his old world did a number on his social skills, because he avoids others so much. It's like he is downright afraid of everyone else!"

"We both know the human world can be cruel, Gaia…" Celestia said with a saddened look on her face. "It's understandable that he has some distrust towards the citizens of Equestria, given that he needed that distrust to survive in his old world, but I'm sure he will warm up in due time." She then smiled brightly at her friend. "After you told me about him, I watched him in my free time. He is a sweet young man that had a not so sweet life in his world, but now that he is here it's only a matter of time before he lets his guard down and happiness can latch onto him!"

"I sure hope so, old friend." Gaia said with a hopeful smile. "I was thinking…maybe it would be a good idea to send Lone Heart to ponyville too. I mean, if he keeps learning at this rate he will be on a high enough of a level to not need my help with magic anymore. If he can manage to learn the value of friendship he might even be ready to become an alicorn one day!"

"That is a most wonderful idea!" The sun mare said happily. "Until the time comes, feel free to send him here to spend time with Twilight. I think it will be better if he got to know her first so she can help him with the ponies in ponyville."

"Oh thank you Celestia!" The Everfree princess said as she hugged her friend. "You are welcome to send Twilight to the palace whenever you want as well, I would be more than happy to have her over!"

Gaia then realized just how much time had passed. _'Time flies when you're with friends, I guess.'_

"I'm sorry, Celestia but I'm afraid I will have to take my leave. Royal business waits for no one, as you know." She said with a light giggle.

"It's ok. It's almost time for me to settle the sun anyway." Celestia said with a warm smile. "I wonder how our students are doing…"

* * *

Lone Heart had to admit that this Twilight Sparkle character was not so bad. In fact she was a very interesting mare. He had managed to open up to her along the day, even if just a little. They traded some of the spells they had. He was happy to get that useful reading spell she had showed him. What surprised him was the extent of her magical ability. He had taught her how to do the spell to control plants and she just got it down tight off the bat. Although she had some difficulty controlling the plant, she managed to move the same plant he had used to show her the trick on her first try. She must have so much magical power that she could do advanced techniques with ease, the only apparent downside was that the spell packed so much power it was harder to control.

Twilight Sparkle was starting to really like her new friend. He didn't talk much in the beginning but she could tell that he was starting to feel more comfortable around her. He had not picked up on the reading spell as fast as she did, but she understood that she was a really gifted unicorn in that regard. Anyway, she was not there to judge his performance. From the little she knew about him, she found him a very smart and genuinely nice colt, although she found his lack of a cutie mark weird, but decided not to touch the subject thinking it might have some rough backstory. He was gentile, had good manners and was pretty funny, though he rarely cracked any jokes. He was the kind of guy that she would really like to get to know better.

"…and then she was locked in the moon." Twilight said, looking at the open book that floated before her. She discovered that the stallion shared her love for books and was exited to finally being able to share her favorite stories with someone other than Spike. She wondered where the dragon had been all day. "Most believe that this is just a story, but I've got my doubts."

Lone Heart looked over her shoulder, not actually noticing just how close he had gotten to his new friend. Twilight blushed at the close contact but make no move to get away from it. She was a young adult after all and he was the only male company in her line of age she had in a long time. She was not falling for him by any means, but a little bit of harmless contact was welcome nonetheless.

The male unicorn was delighted when she told him about how she liked books. He used to read a lot back in the human world. The mare had some pretty crazy theories about some of the folktale, but he found them all kinds of fun. He found himself actually believing her theory about the mare in the moon, but he noticed that she didn't take it too seriously so he chose to do the same.

"You know, I really liked meeting you today." The purple unicorn said with a warm smile, the blush never leaving her face. "I'll admit you are a though nut to crack, but you are really fun once you finally open up!"

The brown colored stallion turned his head to look at her, only to realize how close they were to each other. He blushed and backed away quickly. Only now he had realized just how pretty the mare before him was, she had a more modest and secluded look and he found it adorable.

"Thank you…you are pretty nice yourself!" He said, the blush beginning to fade on his face.

They were saved by the awkward situation as the princesses opened the door to the library. A mischievous smile creeping on their faces as they saw both of their students blushing.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your fun, but I'm afraid it's time to go Lone Heart." Gaia said. The smile never leaving her face.

"Yes, princess." The young colt said giving her a quick bow. He then turned to Twilight and gave her a small smile. "I'll see you around I guess."

After the princesses gave each other their respective farewells the Everfree guests were off on their way home. Finally being alone with her student, Celestia approached her with a bright smile.

"I see you had _fun_ with our special guest." She teased.

"Yeah…I mean NO…nothing like that!" Twilight said blushing brightly at her teacher's comment.

"I know Twilight." The princess said as she giggled. "I just couldn't resist to tease you."

"You can be mean sometimes, you know that, your majesty?" The young mare said with a playful frown.

"Well it's not always that I get to see you react like that." The alicorn said giggling more. "So did you two get along?"

"Yes, we did. He is a great pony." Twilight said with a sad smile. "I just hope it doesn't take too long for his next visit."

"Actually Gaia and I just got done talking about how I would be delighted to have her student over." Celestia said with a warm smile "How about next week? Gaia also said she would love to have you over as well so perhaps you would like to go visit him this time around?"

Twilight had the biggest smile she had ever had on her face as she hugged her mentor.

"Any one of the options would be great!" She said happily. She knew this friendship was destined to last.


	3. Friendship is Magic

The following two years were the best of Lone Heart's life. Never before had he felt so accepted and full of potential. He made it his priority to get as good as he could with the reading spell. He didn't know if the spell had limits, but it was a very complicated one when it reached a point where he had to read multiple books for long periods of time, due to the amount of concentration required to extract information for more than one source all at once. After all this time he was able to read seven books at the same time for two hours before getting a headache, which depending on the length of the book, was enough to finish it.

What really made his magical training advance immensely was his discovery of a new form of training. It all started when he was practicing the spell that Gaia used to move long distances quickly by using roots to go underground. Having no luck moving a small ball through a short distance, he figured he should read the book on the next spell while he practiced in order to save up time. However he was surprised when in the moment he cast the reading spell, his concentration was broken and he was with a sharp pain in the head. Utilizing more than one spell at the same time was harder than anything he had ever done before. The amount of concentration needed to multitask magic was absurd. Lone Heart however, found this one of the greatest discoveries he had made because in the end, the harder it was, the more benefits it gave. He practiced the micromanaging of spells religiously. Every time he learned a new spell he would take his time practice it until he was able to perform it and then continue the practice while he used other spells on the side, be it reading or making the plants dance around him. He noticed that as he got better at multitasking, the spells were getting easier to learn. It was much easier to concentrate on a spell now that he was used to concentrating on many at once.

His social life had also improved. After a few months dealing with Lucky Streak's energetic demeanor and Sunray Novel's flirtatious attitude, he had actually got to know them better. He realized that the librarian's crush on him was nothing to be taken seriously, it was not love by any means, just a girl being dreamy of the new handsome colt who happened to be a prodigy at magic. He also took knowledge of Lucky Streak's long life crush on Sunray, so he made sure to let some comments about how he liked her slip while in the mare's presence. Soon enough they were the newest happy couple in the palace. They were a lot more enjoyable now that the librarian had stopped her advances on him and the Princess's helper had been convinced by his new marefriend to slow down a little.

He had spent a lot of time with Twilight Sparkle. In fact the princesses had made sure they spent a lot of time together, sending their respective students to each other's residences at least once a month, sometimes to spend the night even. Not that he was bothered by it, he actually liked to spend time with his fellow student. He found himself being more and more relaxed around her. All of the defensive barriers he put up around others had faded in time whenever he was with her. Often times one would arrive while the other was practicing and then would properly watch the training until their friend was finished. This created a friendly competition between the two unicorns trying to surpass each other in their magic training, Lone Heart with his prudence in multitasking and Twilight with her ability to perform high level spells with little to no practice. They had become all around best friends during the couple of years together.

Their encounters, however, had ended six months ago with no explanation from the princesses beside them saying they were busy. What the apprentices did not know was that, the alicorns were making the preparations needed for the return of Nightmare Moon. The princesses had agreed that their students were ready to be sent to ponyville and start their test to see if they were fit to become alicorns themselves.

Completely oblivious to this information, Lone Heart was pissed that for some reason the princess ordered him to spend the night guarding the ruins of the castle of the royal pony sisters.

"They could have a least gave me a ball or something…" He said, as he examined the big stone contraption in the entrance of the ruins for what it had to be the hundredth time. He was bored out of his mind; there was literally nothing to do in this destroyed castle.

"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my sorrow…" He sang. He was just trying to pass time really, and since he was all alone he had no trouble making fun of his own situation.

"Uhh…what are you doing?" Said a feminine voice, behind him.

He jumped at the sound and quickly turned to see the owner of the voice. She was a cyan pegasus with a cloud with a rainbow in form of a lightning bolt as her cutie mark and rainbow colored mane and tail.

"…Nothing…" He said, feeling his introversion kick in all at once. Quickly he remembered his duty and took a more imposing stance. "What are you doing here?"

He then noticed four other mares walk into the ruins.

One of them was a light pink pony with three yellow balloons for a cutie mark, she had puffy mane and tail with a darker shade of pink.

There was a yellow pegasus with three pink butterflies for a cutie mark, she had light pink mane and tail.

An orange pony with three apples as her cutie mark, she had a tied mane and tail of blond color and a cowboy hat.

Then there was a white unicorn with three blue gems as her cutie mark, her mane and tail were purple and curly.

"…Rainbow Dash…Who's this fella?" The orange pony said, a southern accent very noticeable in her voice.

"Oh, a new pony!" Said the pink pony starting to jump around excitedly. "Once we get back to town I have to make the biggest party for you!"

"Listen, I'm just guarding the ruins." Lone Heart said with a slightly annoyed voice. "So if you could just leave…"

"And why are you guarding the ruins huh?" The cyan pegasus said flying at the colt's face with an angered expression on her face. "I bet you're working for Nightmare Moon!"

"Wait, so no party?" The pink pony said looking a little saddened.

"Oh let's not be too hasty Rainbow Dash." The white unicorn said approaching the stallion. "I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for being here."

Before he could say anything he saw none one other than Twilight Sparkle walk in through the door.

"Girls, what's with all the…" Her words died in her mouth as she saw the familiar colt. "…Lone?"

"Twilight?" He said in a surprised tone.

"You know him?" Said the yellow pegasus.

"Yes! He is an old friend of mine." She said smiling, as she approached her friends.

"THE PARTY IS STILL ON!" Yelled the pink pony.

"You really need to learn not ta make assumptions about other ponies Rainbow." Said the blond pony.

"Well, he is guarding the ruins while nightmare moon is out. You can't say that isn't suspicious!" Answered the rainbow colored mare.

"Well, she is right. What are you doing here Lone? Don't you know that Nightmare Moon came back?" Said Twilight, trying to make sense of the situation.

"What?!" He said surprised. Of course he and Twilight had discussed this theory many times but he never thought it would actually happen. "Princess Gaia told me to guard the ruins tonight. I had no idea!"

"But why would she…" The lavender unicorn said. "…did she know we would come here?"

"Ahem." The white unicorn said catching everyone's attention. "I hate to ruin the reunion but…eternal night and all."

"Right!" Twilight said with a determined look on her face. "Now that we have the elements of harmony, we can defeat Nightmare Moon!"

"Is that what those things are?" Asked a confused Lone Heart.

The two pegasi brough the stone spheres to the ground.

"One, two, three, four…there's only five!" The Pink mare said.

"Where is the sixth?" The cyan mare said.

"The book said: 'When the five elements are present a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed.'" Said Twilight, lying down in front of the spheres.

"Magic?" The stallion said.

"Well it's worth a try." The lavender mare unicorn said as she began to channel her magic. "I could really use some help here Lone"

"We better leave and let 'em concentrate." The hat wearing mare said as she and the others left, leaving Twilight and Lone Heart alone.

"What can I do to help?" The young stallion said, approaching his friend.

"Well you do have better concentration than me, maybe you can…" She couldn't finish her sentence as a tornado of dark mist enveloped the spheres.

"What the fuck?!" Was all Lone Heart could say as the mare beside him jumped in the tornado with him following behind.

In a bright flash of light they were in another room with Nightmare moon standing in front of them laughing, the elements of harmony behind her.

"That's the real Nightmare Moon?!" Lone Heart said startled.

"Yes!" Twilight said meekly.

Bringing out whatever ounce of courage he could muster, Lone Heart to a step forward. "You deal with the elements. I'll hold her off!"

"Oh you couldn't possibly think that a foal like you could stand a…" Nightmare Moon began, before she was interrupted by a tree golem breaking through the wall behind her and slamming her into a wall away from the elements.

"GO!" He said as he commanded his tree to hold the evil mare in place.

Twilight wasted no time as she ran to the elements and channeled her magic into the spheres. She didn't like her friend's plan and was about to say that it was too dangerous, but she had no time to argue.

"You insolent foal!" The alicorn said as she blasted Lone's tree ent into pieces with one spark of her horn and teleported in front of Twilight only to see the spheres shine brightly and zap her away from them.

"No…NO!" She said desperately.

But to everyone's surprise the spheres stopped shining.

"No! Where is the sixth element?!" Twilight cried out.

The alicorn then lifted her front legs before bringing them down and shattering the orbs into pieces.

"Hahahaha! Did you really think you could defeat me? Now night will last forever!" Nightmare Moon said in a triumphant tone. However she then glared fiercely at Lone Heart. "Now I will deal with you."

Twilight could only watch horrified as the evil mare appeared in front of her friend with a flash of dark mist and used her magic to forcefully slam him against the wall.

Lone Heart knew this was the end. He was facing one of the most powerful beings in the world, there was no way he could overpower her. Time seemed to slow down, as he thought about his life up until now. He had some good moments, but in general it wasn't a very pleasant one. He grew to accept his fate in the short seconds he was held by the mare's magic.

_'__No'_ He though while struggling with all his strength against her magic, but the struggle proved to be useless. _'It can't end like this. I could have been so much more! I deserve more than this!"_

"Now, you will learn what happens to those who oppose me." Nightmare Moon said as she looked deep into his eyes, taking in all of the emotions he was pouring out as she began tighten the grip around his neck. However she saw something else, something she had not seen in a very long time. "You…"

"You think you can destroy the elements of harmony just like that? Well you're wrong because the spirits of the elements of harmony are right here!" The alicorn turned to look at the six mares standing in front her, never letting go off the grip she had on the stallion that was slowly choking.

She was surprised when the shards of the orbs levitated and went in the pony's direction.

"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of honesty! Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of kindness! Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of laughter! Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of generosity! And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire, represents the spirit of loyalty! The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us!"

The shards of the orbs floated around each of the five ponies.

"You don't have the sixth element!" Nightmare Moon said as she wrathfully slammed the pony in her grip against the wall once more, causing him to lose conscience. "The spark didn't work!"

"But it did. A different kind of spark." The lavender mare said as she turned to face the other five. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all…" she turned to face the evil mare defiantly. "…are my friends!"

Just as she said those words a bright light filled the room and then the sphere of the sixth element appeared.

"You see, Nightmare Moon, when those elements are united by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element." Twilight said as Nightmare Moon took a step back, frightened. "The element of magic!"

The shards turned into necklaces around the five ponies, while Twilight got a crown and they were lifted into the air by a powerful energy. A rainbow then emerged from the five of them and enveloped Nightmare moon as she screamed and all ended with a bright flash of light.

After a while all of the mares started to wake up from the event.

"Aw, my head!" Rainbow Dash said while rubbing her temple.

"Is everypony okay?" Said Applejack in a worried tone.

"Lone Heart!" Twilight said as she saw the still figure of her longtime friend lying on the floor, blood slowly seeping out of his mouth.

The lavender mare felt her heart stop. She ran as fast as she could to his side and shook him violently, in desperation.

"Lone, wake up!" She yelled with tears falling from her eyes. "Why did you have to fight her like that?! You knew she was stronger!"

The other mares could only watch in horror as the scene unfolded before them.

The sun then took its place in the sky, ending the eternal night. A spark of withe light appeared in the room as roots came out of the ground and before anyone knew both of the princesses rushed in and were beside the fallen stallion using whatever magic they could to help heal him.

"This should not have happened! It was a mistake to send him here!" Gaia said with an extreme tone of desperation in her voice.

"None of us could have predicted him to actually fight her head on!" Celestia said trying to calm her friend down. "We can still save him, just focus for a minute!"

Twilight was not hearing the princesses beside her. All she could hear was a faint echo.

Why had he been so foolish? He knew it would be a stupid idea to confront Nightmare Moon but yet had done it anyway.

"Why?" She said quietly, to herself.

Then all became quiet as Lone Heart coughed blood, spraying some of it on Twilight, and gasped for air.

"I ain't dead…yet." He said with a raspy voice.

All in the room let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.

Twilight broke down sobbing as she hugged her friend tightly.

She had never experienced loss like that. She now realized that she couldn't imagine her life without him. He had been there when her training got too hard and helped her push through; he had been there for her when she missed her family and needed a shoulder to cry on and had been there the next day to cheer her up. He had always been there when she needed him, but now she almost lost him in a matter of seconds.

"It's ok Twilight." The male unicorn said, in an attempt to make his friend stop crying. "I'm ok."

"You are so stupid!" She said angrily, letting go of him and getting up. "You knew it was suicide to fight her. Why did you do it?"

Lone Heart stumbled got back on his hoofs with some difficulty. "So you wouldn't have to do."

He had done it for her? He had risked his life, knowing that death was not only a possibility but the most likely outcome, and he had done it all for her?

She rushed and hugged him as tightly as she could.

"Never do that again!" She said, almost breaking down again.

"I can't promise anything. You know how I like to fight eternal beings that can wipe me out in a second." He joked. All of the ponies smiled at his at ability to keep a bright attitude even in a situation like this. "Now, not that I don't like hugs, but you're kind of hurting me right now."

"Sorry." She said as she pulled back with a smile on her face knowing her friend was ok.

"That's like, what? Two?" The young stallion said, moving his body around. "Aw…At least three broken ribs…and maybe punctured lung. Eh…I'll live."

"I'm glad that you are alright Lone Heart." Celestia said as Gaia checked her student for any more wounds and used her magic to heal him. She then turned to face the mare that was once Nightmare Moon. "Princess Luna, we have a lot to talk about."

Luna had watched the whole scene. She could not believe that she was capable of doing something like this.

As the tears fell from her eyes, she could not bring herself to look at her sister in shame.

"Look what I've done." She said between sobs. "I…almost…"

"But you didn't sister." The princess said, earning gasps from all of the ponies that didn't know she was her sister. "You are free now; it's time to leave all of the hatred behind. Will you accept my friendship?"

"Oh forgive me sister." Luna ran up to her sibling in tears. "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, dear sister." Celestia said shedding some tears of her own. "Now we can be a family once more."

Luna then walked up to the now healthier looking colt.

"And to you I own a thousand apologies." She said looking down. "I've hurt and if they had not stopped me…"

"Oh don't worry about it." Lone Heart said. "I've had much worse. Like when I was training to control the tree golems. Never thought going through five windows could hurt so much."

The ponies laughed appreciating his dark humor.

After they came back to ponyville Pinkie organized the biggest party the young colt had ever seen. She said it had to be so big because she had to celebrate the return of princess Luna, his arrival, his survival from the fight and the new friendship they shared, which he didn't think it was that much since he had only known them for a few hours, but maybe near death experiences united people. Who knows?

Celestia noticed the frown on her student's face, despite all of the celebration around her.

"Why so glum, my fateful student?" She said with a warm smile. "Aren't you happy you're quest is finally over and you can go back to your studies in Canterlot?"

"That's just it, princess." Twilight said, with a sad look on her face. "I've made so many friends here, but now I have to leave it all behind."

The other mares looked sorrowful as well upon hearing their new friend's statement.

"That's why you're staying!" The princess said with a bright smile.

"What?!" The unicorn said surprised.

"I want you to stay here and discover the magic of friendship. You must report me your findings from your new home in ponyville."

Twilight smiled brightly at this as her new friends came to celebrate the good news with her.

"Wait…does that mean I won't be able to see Lone Heart anymore?" The mare said now remembering her longtime friend. She had almost lost him today and definitely did not want to lose him again because of her new residence.

"Not at all!" Princess Gaia said approaching them. "I and Celestia have been talking and we both agreed that it would be too cruel to separate such good friends. For that reason, Lone Heart will also reside here."

Twilight was living the dream right now. This was perfect. Her new friends and her old friend, all in the same place? It was too good to be true. Imagine all the adventures they could have together. Her thoughts however were interrupted when Lone Heart spit out his drink after hearing the news.

"You're making me stay here?!" He shouted.

All of the ponies laughed at his antics. This was getting to be a really good day.


	4. Ticket Master

Lone Heart and Twilight Sparkle were at the library. After a long day of partying they had finally settled down in their own residences.

Twilight knew how much of an introvert her friend was, but after spending so much time with him she discovered how to get him to open up. It would not be easy but she made a promise to herself to make sure he gets to share a friendship with her new friends. She knew he needed friends more than anything. Ever since she met him he had always had that same pain in his eyes and she never managed to get it out, but now that she had new friends to help her, that sadness was sure to be gone in no time.

"You really have to learn to appreciate changes." The lavender unicorn said, smiling to her friend. "Ponyville is a great place with great ponies, once you get to know them."

"You're just saying that because you got the dream job." The colt said while examining the bookshelves for anything interesting. "I mean, you own a library and you live in a tree! We both know how much you like books and you loved the Everfree palace."

"The Everfree palace was a great place." Spike said as he ate an apple. "Much cozier than Canterlot."

"I'll admit it was pretty funny how the princess made you a pony counselor, but your house is really nice." The mare said trying to convince her friend. "Come on, just try to open up. Please." She said with a pouty face.

"Oh…okay." Lone said, slightly annoyed. "But just because it would look bad if I made you cry again!"

However, they were interrupted as Spike burped out a letter.

"Hear ye, hear ye." The dragon said as he read the letter out loud. "Your grand royal highness, princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala, to be held at the capital city of Canterlot…Blah blah blah…cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest."

"The Grand Galloping Gala!" Twilight said as she shrieked excitedly.

"Oh, not this again." The stallion said as he threw his head back in annoyance.

"I never went before. I heard it's amazing!" Twilight said giggling like a little girl.

Spike then burped two golden tickets. " Look, two tickets!"

The mare quickly took them and held them close to her chest while squealing.

"Before you ask, no I don't want to go." Lone Heart said as he picked a culinary book from the shelf. He didn't plan to learn how to cook, but he liked looking at the pictures.

"Neither do I." Said the little dragon, crossing his arms. "I don't want to participate in this girly stuff."

"Oh come on, boys. A dance would be nice!"

"Why don't you take one of your new friends?" Said the young colt, placing the book back on the shelf. "I'm sure they would appreciate it more than we do."

"Oh no…" The mare said with a frown. "Who am I going to give it to? I can only take one of them!"

Spike then burped another letter.

"Hear ye, hear ye. Your grand royal highness, princess Gaia of Equestria…yada yada yada…extends an invitation to Lone Heart plus one guest."

"You can keep my tickets. I don't want to go." Said the stallion, with an annoyed expression on his face.

"P.S…" Said the baby dragon, as he continued to read the letter. "I know you don't like parties, Lone Heart, but please do this favor for me and go. It's for your own good."

"…Fuck." Said the brown colored stallion. He respected Gaia too much to refuse to do her a favor. He had to go.

"Well it looks like you'll dance after all!" The lavender unicorn said with a mischievous smile on her face. "So, who are you planning on giving that ticket to?"

"Well, seeing as you already have a ticket, Spike doesn't want to go and you are the only people I know in this place…I guess I'll just go back to my place and…I don't know, maybe I'll give it to the first pony to come in." He said as he walked to the door.

"Well it's up to you." Said Twilight, as she also walked out the door. "I promised Applejack that I would help her buck apples today so I'll see you later!"

"Have fun!" Lone said with a faint smile. He then walked towards his place, grumbling about mares abusing of his good will and stupid galas.

* * *

"She…eats too fast?" Lone Heart said, with a confused expression on his face.

"Yes, she just chugs food down like it's nothing. It's just plain disgusting." The red pegasus colt in front of him said frowning.

"No, I don't! The problem is that he eats like a pansy! It takes him an hour to finish eating anything!" His azure coated marefriend said, an angry look flaring on her face.

_'__What did I do to deserve this?'_ The green haired unicorn thought.

The ponies in this town were mental and now he had to deal with their problems. He still loved Gaia like a mother, but she could be cruel sometimes. Her reasoning behind giving her protégé that job was if he had to talk to ponies for a living, he would start to enjoy talking altogether. Although her student was completely oblivious to this, he knew that it was part of some crazy scheme to make him have more friends and live a happier life, but frankly, it was getting to be a pain in the ass.

The brown coated unicorn got up from his seat and walked up to a basket full of fruit, that was given to him as a welcoming gift, and used his magic to pick up two apples and placed them in a table in front of his two clients.

"Ok, why don't you show me how you eat?" He said, as he calmly got back on his seat.

"Right now? I don't think it would be appropriate…" The pegasus started before being interrupted by his companion.

"Oh, will you just colt up?" She said as she took the entire apple out with one bite.

The stallion grumbled angrily as he took a miniscule bite out of his apple.

"Ok, I think I see the problem." The unicorn said a little bit startled. "What did the apple taste like?"

"What do you mean?" The colt in front of him said.

"It tasted like apple?" The mare said confused.

"Can you describe the taste?" Lone Heart said, trying to be more specific.

The two ponies simply stared at him trying to formulate an answer.

"Let's try again." He said picking two more apples from the basket and placing them before the two ponies. "But, you…" He said gesturing to the mare. "…don't just shove it down your throat and you…" He pointed at the stallion. "…actually get a mouthful of it."

The two of them were about to object when they were interrupted.

"DO IT!" Lone shouted angrily.

Feeling frightened, the two ponies did as they were told and actually took a proper bite of their apples. Their faces lighted up, like they had never noticed how delicious apples were.

"See?" The unicorn said, expecting his burden to finally end.

"Ok that solves that issue, but we still have other problems." The mare said while looking at her colfriend angrily. "I see the way you look at other mares!"

"And how would you notice that when you never look me in the eyes?" He threw back at her in the same angered tone.

"Ok, let's try something else." The unicorn said, looking through the basket. He needed a bigger fruit. A banana? It would have to do.

He levitated the now peeled fruit between his two clients. "Now I want you eat it together."

"What?" Said the mare as she raised a brow.

"But won't we hit our heads?" Said the colt, completely confused

"It's called romance." Said Lone Heart. He was trying his hardest not to deck them in the face. "Just trust me."

They decided to listen to their counselor and started eating the fruit, one from each side. After a feel bites their lips touched and what started as a little kiss turned in seconds into a heavy make out session.

"Oh…um…" The unicorn stumbled over his words. "I guess that settles it…that'll be…uhh"

Before he could finish the stallion had reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a random quantity of coins which he then threw on the table in front of him, never breaking the kiss with his lover.

"I guess that covers it. I hope you are satisfied." The counselor said with a blush on his face.

The pair managed to get out of the sofa, out of the door of the room, walk all the way through the waiting room and into the street without breaking the heated kiss.

"…Dayum." Was all the young unicorn could muster. The ponies in this town were really crazy.

After counting the coins he realized that the couple had paid a little bit more than necessary, not that they seemed to mind. After giving out a long sigh he pressed the button to activate the "Next" sign in the waiting room.

He was surprised when he saw the rainbow haired mare from the day earlier come in through the door.

"What's up with those two?" She said gesturing to the front door.

"Let's just say I'm a great counselor." Lone Heart said. He looked at the mare with the same neutral expression he had every day. "You're Twilight's friend right? I don't think I caught your name."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, the best flyer in all of Equestria!"

_'__Modesty is strong on this one.'_ The stallion thought sarcastically.

"And what problem do you need my help with?"

The mare then assumed a completely different stance. She was more relaxed and had a sultry look in her eyes. She then approached him making sure to move her hips sensually with each step.

"Oh, I have a very big problem. After I saw your noble sacrifice I just couldn't stop thinking about you."

"Uhh…what?" The unicorn said surprised. He was feeling the sweat run down his forehead as his social anxiety kicked in at full force.

"How could I not think about the courageous, handsome stallion that was willing to give his life to save the ones who he cares for." She said in an extra sultry voice.

The blush on Lone Heart's face was threatening to melt his skin off. Who was this mare and why did she came on him like this, out of the blue?

"So I made a decision. I decided to come here and confess my feelings towards you." The pegasus said as she climbed in the chair and snuggled close to the young colt. "The truth is…" She then whispered sensually in his ear. "…I want you."

Lone Heart froze. He didn't know what to do. Not even Sunray Novel had come on to him this hard. He was going between a battle between his mind, telling him to get away from her, and his hormones, who told him to take her right here and now.

However his train of thought was interrupted when the white unicorn from the day before, dressed in a gorgeous dress, walked in through the door that Rainbow Dash forgot to close.

"Rainbow Dash, what do you think you're doing?!" She yelled angrily at her friend.

The rainbow haired pony could only stare at the mare before her for several seconds.

"Oh…Rarity…didn't expect to see you here." She said meekly.

"What is going on here?" The purple haired mare asked fiercely.

"Um…you see…I came here to confess my love for…w-what's your name again?" Rainbow Dash said as she turned to look at the colt in her grasp.

"…Lone Heart." He said. He was more than confused now.

"Yeah…Lone Heart…I'm totally in love with him!" She said, trying her best to sound convincing.

"Were you trying to seduce him into giving you the ticket?" Rarity asked, unimpressed.

"NOT AT ALL!" Rainbow shouted. "AND WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE?"

"I-I…needed some counseling on some matters…really important matters…personal matters." She said stumbling over her words.

"You came to get counseling dressed like that?" The azure mare asked with a raised brow.

"W-What do you mean? I always…dress like this."

"Were you going to play the seduction card on him too?"

"I-I mean…I…yes." Rarity said shamefully.

"The ticket?" Lone said meekly.

Rainbow Dash bowed her head in shame. "After Twilight told us that you had a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, I came here to seduce you so you would give it to me."

"So…you don't love me?" The colt said trying to make sense of the situation.

"No…I mean not that you are not a nice guy…I mean I barely even know you…" She stumbled over her words as a blush flared in her face.

"So…can you please get off of me?" He said looking away from her.

She quickly hopped off of the colt when she realized she was still that close to him. Her blush just kept getting brighter as she thought about the awkward situation she put herself in.

"Rainbow Dash, I think it would be best if we left." Rarity said, wanting to leave that place with whatever pride she had left.

"GREAT IDEA!" The pegasus said as she flew out of the building at an impressive speed.

"I guess I'll see you around Mr. Lone Heart." Rarity said as she desperately ran out of the room.

The stallion just sat there contemplating existence for several minutes. The ponies in this town were crazy, all of them.

"I'm done working, for the day." He said as he walked out of his place. He just felt like going for a walk, that and he couldn't stay in that room after what just happened.

* * *

Lone Heart was in trouble. He was stuck in a town full of insane ponies and this ticket seemed to attract them. He had to get rid of it quietly, but how? He had to give it to someone discretely as to not attract more attention. Thankfully no one else seemed to know he had the dammed thing so he was safe…for now.

He was at the door of the library. He figured that if he found Twilight she might help him put an end to this madness.

He knocked gently on the door.

"Twilight? It's me, Lone Heart." He said out loud. After hearing no response he desided to go in anyway, thinking that she would be doing the smart thing and hiding from society.

When he got inside and turned on the lights he was surprised to see all of the five mares from the day before standing in front of him.

"Oh no…"

"Hey there big fella…" Applejack started.

"Hey I tried the seduction card first, he's mine!" Said Rainbow Dash.

"Excuse me? I don't see your name on him!" Said Rarity, angrily.

"If I write my name on him do I get the ticket?" Pinkie Pie said with a bright smile.

Then he felt something on his side and when he turned to look, he saw Fluttershy with her forehead pressed against his shoulder and a bright blush on her face.

"...what are you doing?"

"S-seducing you?" She said meekly.

Suddenly, with a bright flash of light, Twilight appeared in the room and stared blankly at the ponies.

"I can't decide!" She said as she fell on the ground with her hooves on her head.

He was more than pissed. This was too much off a hassle over something as stupid as a ticked for a stupid gala.

"Can't you just ask Celestia for more tickets?" Lone Heart said bluntly.

The mares were silent as they stared at the young colt with wide eyes.

"Spike…take a note." Twilight said.

* * *

After sending the letter and receiving immediately receiving a response in the form of enough tickets for everypony, the mares apologized for their antics towards both of the unicorns and were on their way.

"Your friends are insane!" Lone Heart said after he was left alone with his old friend.

"They can be sometimes, but everyone is a little bit out of their mind." Twilight said with a smile. "And don't try to pretend you didn't like having all the attention they were giving you."

The stallion blushed at her comment. "That's none of your concern."

"Well I'm glad it's over. Now if you don't mind it's time for me to get some sleep." She said as she walked to her room, a look of drowsiness in her face.

"Good night." Lone said as went out the door of the library.

"Try not to have too many perverted dreams." The lavender unicorn said as a last jab at her friend, which resulted on a fierce blush on his part.

At least now it was over.


	5. Applebucking Season

"So…your son doesn't like carrots?" Lone Heart asked the mare in beige mare in front of him.

"Yes and I'm sure it's bad for him. Everypony in my family eats carrots everyday except for him. What can I do to convince him to eat?" She said as she glanced at her son that was sitting beside her.

"Why don't you like carrots?"

"They taste bad!" The foal said looking annoyed.

"Have you thought about…you know…feeding him something else?" The colt said. This really seemed like an easy problem to fix. If the kid didn't like carrots, he didn't.

"Oh, but everypony eats carrots. I'm sure he is just being rebellious. I just need a way to convince him to eat." The mother said.

'Oh, this is one of those mothers.' The stallion thought. He figured he should help the kid out.

"Ok, open your mouth." He said as he approached the foal.

As the little pony did as he was told Lone Heart pretended to examine his throat before backing away.

"Just as I suspected, he has…Yugoslavia." He said quickly thinking of a name for his fake decease.

"And what is that?" The mom said, now a little frightened.

"Basically his stomach was not meant for carrots. I would recommend you to stop feeding it to him before it evolves into a case off…Nascar."

"Oh, by Celestia! I'm so sorry Firework. We must go home immediately so I can prepare you something that you can actually eat, how about a nice green salad?" The mare said as she dropped what she owed in the table and walked to the door.

"Thanks mister!" The little foal said as he trotted happily out the door after giving Lone a hoof bump.

Lone Heart started to count the coins the mare had given to him, but his payment soon jumped off the table as the ground began shaking. He quickly hopped off his seat and ran outside when he heard all of the commotion.

"Stampede!" A random mare shouted as she pointed to the town gates.

When he looked at said gates he could see a massive herd cows. That many cows could easily flatten the entire town in minutes and it seemed that they had no intention of stopping. However he could also see Applejack and a dog sprinting after the cows and grouping them together. With a toss of her lasso she grabed the leader of the group and drove her off the path of the city, soon followed by the others before coming to a stop.

_'__She may be insane just like everyone else in this town, but she sure has got skills.'_ He thought, feeling genuinely impressed by her performance.

Soon enough, all the ponies in the town were cheering for their heroine. Now that he had a change to look at the inhabitants of the city in general, he noticed something very peculiar, they were almost all mares! At least 80% of the population in this town was all female, no wonder four of them had already tried to seduce him, it seemed like it was a fight to find a male open to a relationship around these parts.

_'__Unless they're all…'_ A blush overcame his face as he thought of the alternative.

* * *

One week after the event the town had prepared a party to commemorate the good deeds of their savior, Applejack. The city was decorated with confetti, serpentine and numerous banners that were outshined by the big golden banner with apples drawn in the length of it in the town. A trophy could be seen in the town hall, next to a red curtain.

Lone Heart was at the front of the crowd that was patiently waiting for the award to start. Of course he would much rather be watching from a distance but Twilight made him stay at the front in order to give proper support for his friend, if you could even call his relationship with Applejack friendship.

Twilight walked in the stage and up to the stand, quickly straightening a huge pile of paper with her magic.

_'__Are you serious?'_ Was all that the green haired unicorn could think. Did she really prepare that big of a speech? And she planned to read all of it? And on top of that, make him watch it all?

"Welcome everypony!" The lavender mare said as she levitated the first page of the pile to her eyes. "Today we are here to honor a pony who we can always count on to help with matter great and small." She switched to the next page. "A pony whose contributions to…"

Then out of nowhere came Rainbow Dash, slamming her hooves on the stand and knocking down all Twilight's big pile of paper.

"Did you see Applejack's slick moves out there? What an athlete!" She said excitedly while Twilight frowned beside her, clearly upset by being interrupted. "This week she's gonna help me with my new flying trick and I know it's gonna be so awesome!"

"Exactly" Twilight said, pushing the Pegasus out of the way "and…"

Then Pinkie Pie emerged from the stand like she was hiding there, just waiting to pop out.

"This week I get to run Sugar Cube corner for the first time!"

"What does that have to do with Applejack?" The lavender mare asked confusedly.

"Oh, Applejack, one of the best bakers ever is gonna help me!" The pink pony said excitedly. "Applejack makes everything great, so free samples for everypony!" The crowd then cheered loudly.

"Ok, that's great, now if I could just make a point without being inter…" "Twilight?" In came Fluttershy, lightly nudging the unicorn's side. "…rupted." Said the unicorn with an annoyed look on her face.

Lone Heart had to choke back a laugh at the scene. He knew hoe his old friend hated being interrupted, often times interrupting her himself back in the palace when they used to read books together.

"Twilight I'm so sorry, but I just wanted to mention that Applejack is also helping me this week with the official bunny census, where we count up all the new baby bunnies that were born this season." The yellow Pegasus said with a warm smile. "She's gonna help gather them using her wonderful herding skills."

"Anyone else?" Twilight said angrily as Fluttershy quietly left the stage. "Anyone? No? Well then, as I was trying to say…" She said as she brought up the pile of paper once more, only to notice the mayor looking at her, expecting her turn to speak. "Uhh, never mind." She then threw the papers all over the floor and stomped off back to the crowd.

Lone Heart was having a very hard time holding his laughter. That had been the angriest he had ever seen Twilight get in a long time. He was actually starting to like these mares, they might be crazy, but they sure were fun.

"Nice speech." He said as Twilight stood beside him.

"Don't even start" The mare said angrily. "As if it had not been a hassle to deal with you interrupting me, now it seems the entire Ponyville wants to!"

"That's what you get for making a two hour long speech." He said as he scoffed at her. "And you wanted to make me sit through all of it!"

"I only made you sit in the front so you would get to see firsthand how nice my friends are and realize that they're not crazy."

They were interrupted as all of the ponies gasped. Turning their eyes to the stage, they realized that Applejack was not in her position behind the curtains.

"I'm here!" Applejack shouted, breaking the long awkward silence. She then stumbled through the crowd carrying two baskets full of apples at her sides.

"Miss Mayor, thank you kindly for this here award thingy." She said as she walked up to the trophy. Her eyes were half closed and she was clearly very tired. "It's so bright and shiny and…hehehe" she laughed as she looked at her reflection on the trophy "I sure do look funny." She then proceeded to make wired noises as she shook her head back and forth, before being joined by Pinkie Pie.

"You're right Twilight. They are totally not crazy." The young colt said sarcastically.

Twilight quickly got up on the stage, ignoring her friends comment.

"So, thank you Applejack for saving us from that scary stampede and always being there for everypony."

"Yeah, I like helping the pony folks and…stuff." The hat wearing mare said before quickly falling asleep in the middle of the stage. "Oh, yeah, thanks!" She then dragged the trophy loudly through the crowd all the way to her barn.

"Was it just me or did Applejack seem a little…" Started Twilight.

"Tired?" said Rainbow Dash.

"Dizzy?" said Fluttershy.

"Messy?" said Rarity, earning a few glances from the other mares.

"Cray cray?" said Lone Heart, earning straight up stares from everyone else. "What?"

"What does 'cray cray' mean?" Pinkie asked confusedly, making all of the ponies sigh loudly.

* * *

After the award, Lone Heart had returned to his place and was reading a book that he had borrowed from Twilight. He could use the book reading spell and be done with it, but it was turning out to be a slow day and he actually needed something to help him pass time. It was kind of relaxing to have a day off after the turbulent days he had been having lately. That was when Rainbow Dash came crashing through his roof, thankfully landing on the couch.

_'__I guess a quiet day was just too much to ask for.'_ He thought as he quietly put his book down.

"There's a door, you know."

"I think Applejack needs some help with her problems." The mare said.

"What, did she launch 100ft into the air?"

"Yep." Was all she could say before passing out.

The stallion gave out a loud sigh and walked out of the building, leaving the Pegasus sleeping in his couch.

* * *

After walking around for what it seemed like at least an hour, Lone Heart gave up on trying finding Sweet Apple Acres, it was just too far out and he couldn't bring himself to ask someone.

On his way home he noticed a commotion at Sugar Cube Corner. He figured it had something to do with what Pinkie said about free samples. He wasn't really hungry so he tried to just walk past it.

"Hey Lone!" Pinkie shouted, making the stallion feel the need to approach her.

"Hey Pinkie. So, how is running Sugar Cube Corner going?"

"It's going great!" The pink pony said excitedly. "Applejack even helped me bake these muffins! Want one?"

"Sure." Lone said as he levitated a muffin with his magic, brought it to his mouth and took a bite only to immediately spit it out and make gagging sounds.

"Pinkie, what the fuck is this shit?!"He shouted as he looked at the muffin, seeing a worm come out of it.

"Oh, that's not supposed to happen." Pinkie said worriedly.

Lone was about to keep on questioning the mare when he heard loud groaning coming out of the store. Quickly running out, he and Pinkie could see several ponies lying on the floor, while groaning, some even throwing up.

"Did they eat it in one bite or something?" Lone asked. He had taken a bite out of the cupcake and realized it was bad instantly. How did these ponies ate the whole thing if it tasted so bad?

"But, how did this happen? Applejack even helped me with the ingredients and she's like the best baker ever!"

"Applejack helped you?" He said, putting the pieces together. Applejack was causing these disasters and she had to be stopped. "Pinkie, can you tell me where is Fluttershy's cottage?"

* * *

"Hey Fluttershy, I'm here." Applejack said, yawning as she walked into her friend's cottage. "Let's do that bunny counting…thingy."

"Oh, Applejack." Fluttershy said, flying to her friend. "Thank you for coming, but I thought…"

"Ok that's 35 new baby bunnies." Lone said as he walked back to Fluttershy, levitating a check board in front of him. "Oh, hi AJ."

"What is going on?" Applejack said, squinting her tired eyes. "I thought I was going to help you with the bunny…stuff."

"Well, Lone Heart said that you couldn't help me with the bunny census, so he offered himself to help me instead." Fluttershy said.

"And why would I not be able to help with the…whatever you're doing?" The hat wearing pony said defiantly.

"Because you need to sleep, Applejack." The colt said.

"Oh not you too, Lone." The blonde mare said with in an annoyed tone. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Twilight. I am fine, I don't need help. I'm the most trustworthy pony in ponyville remember?"

"You do know you're talking to a rock, don't you?" Lone said, staring at the mare, who had just directed every word toward a big rock near the cottage.

Applejack blinked a few times at the rock. "I knew that."

"Listen Applejack, there's nothing wrong with being tired. You work on that orchard every day and you help everypony in this town with whatever issue they have. Sometimes you just need a day off." The stallion said, trying to talk some sense into the mare before him.

"You do seem pretty drowsy Applejack. I'm sure no one will mind if you take a break." Fluttershy said, now worried for her friend.

"I don't need a break!" Applejack said angrily. "Now, if you'll excuse me, since I don't have to help you with the bunny counting thing that you do, I still have a lot of apple bucking to do." The mare then stormed off.

"Well, it was nice spending time with you Fluttershy, but I still have some business to take care of." Said Lone Heart as he trotted after Applejack.

Fluttershy gave him a quick wave. "I hope they manage to get along with eachother."

* * *

Lone Heart had been following Applejack from a distance until she got back to Sweet Apple Acres. He had to admit the place was impressive. It had hundreds of apples and he knew that Applejack only had her brother to help her take care of all of it, besides her grandmother and little sister, but he figured they couldn't do the heavy work. How did they manage to take care of everything by themselves was beyond him, but now it seemed that Applejack was trying to do everything alone, no wonder she was dead tired.

"Applejack…" He said approaching her. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm bucking apples." She said tiredly as she kicked a dead tree.

"Yeah…about that…" He said as Twilight approached them.

"Uhh…guys…what is going on?" She said as she stared at Applejack repeatedly kicking the dead tree.

"What's going on is that you two won't stop bugging me while I'm trying to work!" Applejack said angrily as she starting to kick the tree more viciously.

"That's a dead tree Applejack." The lavender mare said unimpressed.

Applejack blinked a few times at the tree. "I knew that."

"Applejack, you are clearly in no condition to keep working, you have to let us help you." Twilight said.

"Twilight for the last time, I don't need help!"

This mare was just so stubborn. It was clear that she was that she had worked herself dead and she knew that, but it was like she had some kind of religious code of honor she needed to follow in order to not bring shame to her family or something.

Lone Heart had an idea, but he didn't like it one bit. What he was planning to do would probably ruin what little reputation he had, but since nothing else seemed to work it was his only choice.

"Applejack, I have a very important thing to say to you and it's very important that you listen to every word very intently." He said in a serious manner.

Applejack was genuinely interested, if a little bit freighted with his statement. She didn't expect someone to be so serious on the matter and he seemed like he was ready to scorn her.

There was a few seconds of silence. Lone Heart was battling his conscience in order to do what he needed to. Finally managing to swallow his pride he started.

_"__Soft kitty_

_Warm kitty_

_Little ball of fur_

_Happy kitty_

_Sleepy kitty_

_Purr purr purr"_

And before they knew it, Applejack was fast asleep on the floor.

It stung his pride to sing a song like that to make a mare sleep, but it had to be done and he knew it worked.

He turned to Twilight only to notice that she was barely managing to hold her laugh in. For the mare it was hilarious that her friend brought himself to sing something like that to a fully grown mare and the look on his face was priceless. She only wished she had a camera to save this moment for when she needed a laugh.

"I didn't know the big strong stallion could be so sweet and tender." Twilight said mockingly.

"Laugh all you want. It still worked." Lone said with an annoyed expression on his face.

"It worked so well that I might have to call you to put me to sleep one of these days."

"When you're done joking, we still have to pick all these apples before she wakes up and we have to deal with her again."

"Oh, but I would love to hear your sweet singing voice one more time." The mare said giggling.

"You'll never let me live that down, will you?" The colt asked as he put his head down.

"Nope."

"Let's just get this over with." He said with a sigh as they began the process of picking apples, Twlight levitating the apples off the trees and Lone Heart making the trees shake the fruits off.

After a while Twilight figured it would be faster if they got more help, so she called her friends while he kept at it. Soon enough everypony was picking apples while Applejack slept soundly.

* * *

"I'm so sorry everypony." Applejack said sadly. After she woke up and saw all of the apples bucked, she was more than relieved, it was clear that she would not be able to do all of the work by herself and she was glad that her friends intervened. "I should have accepted your help when you help when you offered it."

"It's alright AJ. In the end it all worked out." Rainbow Dash said cheerfully.

"Oh you know what we should do? A party!" Pinkie said excitedly.

"Why would we do a party?" Asked Rarity.

"To celebrate helping Applejack with her problems of course!" The pink mare exclaimed smiling.

"I think that's a great idea Pinkie." Said Twilight smiling brightly.

Lone Heart had to admit these ponies could be fun. They each had distinctive personalities that set them apart and it was like they complemented each other. He was kind of glad to know them, but he felt left out at the same time. They were Twilight's friends and he found it impossible for him to share the same level of friendship that she had with them.

They were the elements of harmony, they were connected, destined for greatness while he was just a regular unicorn.

He always had hopes that one day he would be a decent spell caster, but that was all he could be…decent. Of course Gaia had chosen him for a reason, but he did not have Twilight's talent or the power she was born with, she was the element of magic after all.

It pained him that his vision of fate was so cruel, but if there was one thing that he learned from his world was that greatness was only for the lucky.

After finishing up at the farm, everypony went their separate ways to a well-deserved night of sleep.

As he lay in his bed Lone Heart could not bring himself to sleep, his mind was too troubled. Was that really all he could accomplish? He remembered when Gaia told him that she believed he would do great things for Equestria, but as of now it seemed like he just got in the way of the real heroes.

Deciding not to think about the matter too much, he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to overcome him, after all there was no point in thinking about his future if there was nothing to be expected of it.


End file.
